3,2,1…Blast Off!

The first-grade scientists are having a blast studying the Solar System!  Recently, the first through fourth-grade classes spent the morning at the Discovery Museum and Planetarium.  Each class participated in a focused learning lab. Our Unquowa students were able to blast off into outer space during a planetarium show as well!  This field experience was the perfect compliment to our first-grade Solar System unit.

Unquowa 5th Graders Take NYC!

The 5th Graders had a blast at the Natural History Museum this week. They explored the exhibits independently, watched an awesome show at the Hayden Planetarium and completed a “clipboard of fun” at the Native American Exhibit. Way to go 5th graders!

Gees Bend Inspired Quilts

Enslaved women in the rural, isolated community of Gee’s Bend, Alabama began quilting in the 1800s. Their quilts were necessary and practical to provide warmth for their families rather than a quest to reinvent an art form. Unexpectedly, by piecing together scraps of fabric and clothing, they created abstract designs inspired by their culture, experiences, and artistry, that had never before been expressed on quilts. The Third and Fourth-grade classes study the history of Gees Bend and created out of felt their own collaborative quilt designs inspired by the women of Gees Bend.

Unquowazine Roving Reporters at Large!

Two of Unquowazine’s roving reporters met with Ms. Lauer about the history of our beloved school. Unquowazine, the lower school’s literary and art magazine, is a compilation of student work from PreK – Grade 4. In addition, to gathering student work samples, the Unquowazine members contribute original written work through interviews, surveys, comics, and artwork. For this year’s edition, two of our Grade 4 students elected to interview Ms. Lauer and gather information and “Fun Facts about Unquowa.” They spent time in the archives studying Unquowa’s graduation class photos dating back to the 1920s and collected answers to questions such as: How was Unquowa founded? How has the school evolved since it was founded? Why is the gator the mascot of Unquowa? All will be revealed in May when Unquowazine Vol. 5 is published! Stay tuned!

Can We Eat All of Them?! YES!

The Upper School Mandarin students had a yummy week of Food Tasting as part of the cultural learning. The food was all made by Li laoshi the night before and laid out for the students in separate containers. When the students “ordered” their food, they had to use the target language from the beginning through the end. When they made comments on the food, they were also required to use the target language. It is beneficial to students with their listening and speaking skills. When they asked if they could finish all the food, you know the answer!

Falling Objects: Mass and Air Resistance

This lab was a two (2) part activity for the 8th graders. Lately, we’ve been learning about mass, weight, gravity, forces, Newton’s Laws, air resistance, motion and much more within the realm of physics. For the first part of the lab, students were testing gravity by dropping an empty water bottle from a meter which was timed using a stopwatch. After a few trials with the empty bottle, students filled the bottles a quarter of the way with sand and repeated the process. The final trial the bottles were filled halfway with sand and they were tested once more. The students observed that no matter how much sand was in the bottles, the time it took to hit the floor was relatively the same (slight differences due to human error which we discussed as a class). The reason for this is because gravity on Earth is constant (9.8 meters per second squared or 9.8m/s^2); this means no matter what the mass of the object is, as long as there is no outside forces acting on the object like air resistance, they will all fall at the same rate!

The second part of the activity involved the students testing air resistance! In this section of the lab, students were given a toy and a bunch of materials which they would use to create a parachute for their toy. We saw a wide range of ideas and these are just some of them! The scholars concluded that the parachutes needed to be light weight but cover a large surface area in order to provide the most air resistance. In the end, students had a blast and they were able to test their designs by dropping them off of the jungle gym and outside the second story window of the Science Lab.